1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to silica gels containing within their structure in insolubilized form reagents which are normally soluble. More especially, this invention relates to silica gels containing physico-chemically absorbed, in reactive but insolubilized form, reagents which can react with certain materials to be detected with evolution of color. More especially, this invention relates to silica gels containing reactive but insolubilized colorimetric analytical reagents which are normally soluble in solution. This invention further relates to the method for preparing such gels and their use in analysis or in the selective separation of cations and anions from an aqeuous phase.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A great many organic and inorganic reagents have been described in the literature which can be used in analytical chemistry for the determination of cations and anions in the liquid phase, and preferably in an aqueous phase, and which in the presence of the ion in question give colored precipitates or corresponding color reactions. These reactions may be used both for qualitative and quantitative determination of the particular ion. However, the use of these methods calls for a properly equipped laboratory and trained laboratory personnel and is rather time-consuming.
Thus, there has been a need for simplifying these analytical detection and determination procedures and for adapting them so that they can be carried out anywhere.